Today's Evil Beet Gossip

The ANTM Video Game?

Yes, it’s true.

On November 7, software developer Eidos will release the America’s Next Top Model video game for Nintendo DS. The player will guide one aspiring model through photo shots, runway walking and challenges, with the goal of being the last woman (or transgendered individual!) standing.

My first instinct is to rant about this, but I have to admit that it’s nice to see the gaming industry focusing some attention on young women.

I think this sort of thing would be really fun with Nintendo Wii, where you could have players actually do a runway walk.

18 CommentsLeave a comment

  • I still think its insulting. Every game they release that’s geared towards girls is almost always about clothes or makeup or something superficial and vapid like that. If anything it exposes their ignorance and blatant pandering.

    Hey Nintendo! I’m a girl gamer! And I like action adventure games with bright colors and high replay value, like LOZ, Mario, SSBB! Could you just make those please, and stop being so sexist and wasting your time on pink colored accessories and silly airhead games? Thanks, signed, Frustrated Girl Gamer

  • it’s odd to hear. you come off as an ultra feminist in your sarah palin rants. so i would think you would have a problem with the gaming industry “focusing attention on young women” by creating such sexist games–that perpetuate gender stereotypes and gender roles. what? daddy’s little princess doesn’t think halo is for girls…bummer…is mario off the table too? what? larry can’t play dress up after football practice?—not unless he’s planing to become trans gendered?… poor guy.. (Ps that daddy’s little girl is not in referenced to you beet. i know you and pops are close.)

  • @beefy:

    a) I would never define myself as an “ultra feminist.” Disliking Sarah Palin as this nation’s potential second-in-command does not make one especially feminist; it’s more an indication of sanity.

    b) Let’s face it: most girls don’t like Halo. Some do. Most don’t. First-person shooter games and Final Fantasy-style games and Madden football and whatnot just don’t hold the interest of most young women. Saying that options should be available for young women who don’t like the traditional gaming fare is in no way equivalent to saying that girls shouldn’t or can’t play games like Halo.

  • I thought about it.

    A) that’s fair.
    B) true—but why don’t they hold the interest of most young women? Maybe because young women are brought up to fill in certain gender roles.. From a very young age the marketing of pink barbies and Disney princesses, amongst other things, encourages what is expected of girls and the continuation of marketing “boy things” for boys and “girl things” for girls may offer the opportunity for variety–if they chose to deviate from the “norm.” However, at the same time it doesn’t exactly help them deviate from the “norm.” I don’t know if I’m making any sense and I don’t want to taste the wrath of your logical powers :) I guess I just see such marketing practices as a double edge sword. Such marketing practices offer variety but add to the perpetuation of certain gender stereotypes and gender roles.

  • Okay I’m sick of the “ultra-feminist” I like to wear dress and put on make up and can be prissy. But I also am a good old MT girl and chop wood, ride snowmobiles, 4wheelers and like big trucks. (no I’m not a redneck) But I think its okay for girls to want to look good. If I would have had all older brothers I would be a little to manly, so for you “ultra-feminist” stop bitching about the rest of us girls making a bad name for ourselves, cause your the ones that are the problem.

  • Hey Beefy, do you have children? I’m guessing not… What you find out when you raise a child is that there really are differences between the sexes that cannot be accounted for by social conditioning. There are always exceptions and degrees and overlaps, of course.

    When I bought my nine year old daughter a Nintendo DS, the sales person at Walmart told me that this is the format favored by girls in the 7 to 11 bracket. My very bright daughter, who also excels at Tae Kwan Do, adores the puppy game I got for it, which mostly revolves around nurturing, caring for and training puppies. Sometimes when she is busy I water and feed her dog and take it for a walk. (Smile).

    The Nintendo DS game she wanted next was a babysitting one, which she was rapidly disenchanted by because the baby cries so damn much.

    I will definitely be getting her the Next Top Model game when it is available. She likes the show, which is fine with me because:
    1.) It features women of color, not just skinny, blonde, blue-eyed, white girls (my daughter is Asian).
    2.) It didn’t take long for both of us to become quite irritated with the majority of the contestants, which helps her understand some of the realities of modeling, which no longer seems quite so desirable to her.

    My sister-in-law exposed my daughter very early to the Disney princess shtick, which I found irritating, but it is just one of the realities of our culture that parents have to deal with. My daughter used to day dream about being a princess, and played endless imaginary princess games with her cousin. I accepted this, and got her lots of princess dress up clothes, crowns, etc. Eventually, when she was in 2nd grade, and I was volunteering in her school’s library, I started checking out books from a series of historical biographies about the lives of princess’ in history which I would read to her. It didn’t take long for my daughter to figure out that being a princess was not all it was cracked up to be.

  • Oooo I am so getting this when it comes out here hahaha, makes a change from Final Fantasy and pokemon *nerd*

  • Hey “biggirlpanties” I like to look good too, but that doesn’t mean I am not going to resent it when Nintendo further solidifies the image that all women are about is clothes and makeup.

  • Gamer Grrlz, it’s not like Halo and LOZ and all games like that are particularly geared towards guys. I personally am not a fan of those kind of games (I like Pokemon and Harvest Moon, lol.) Most of these games aren’t geared towards any one gender, it’s just that more boys than girls prefer certain kinds of games. I’m sure that there will be some boys who get the ANTM game, just like some girls choose Halo. *shrug* I think girls are lucky that there isn’t a stigma against girls liking “boy” games (it’s actually somewhat revered in the gaming world), but we can also get the “girly” games.
    Either way, I am looking forward to the ANTM game :D

  • I might check this out since the idea of a video game including putting on makeup is intriguing to me. I love makeup and being creative with my looks. And I’m a feminist!

    I also play Castlevania and RPGs and Zelda and Half Life and Silent Hill. And Rock Band.

    The DS lends itself well to new/creative formats, so I’m all for anything they want to try. Nintendo knows it can sell a lot of little girly (and little boy-ey) games because tons of kids have DSes, so they’re going to make games about Barbie and horses and fashion and you know what? It’s not going to ruin the youth of America. Shitty parenting is.

  • We have this game in Germany already and let me tell you: It’s not as good as it sounds. It’s actually quite boring because you have to do the same things all the time.Oh and there’s one game where you have to put MakeUp on the model’s face and it’s like impossible to get all the points within the time.

  • I’m oddly excited to hear that. Must be the girly girl coming out.

    And Beet, GREAT idea! How fun would that be? I feel like such a five-year-old but God, I’d totally play it on Wii! Doing posing, runway walks.. I get excited just thinking about it. Uh.

  • i thinkk it looks pretty cool. (: i don’t think a game is such a big ddeal to be fussing about. and i’m only 13. So maybe you guys should just learn it’s a game.

    • SHUT UR FUCKIN MOUTH LITTE GIRL no one is fightin or fusssin bout it so get off this website bitch